Series: Featured

December 2, 2016

Christian Standard

To Women, By Women: NATALIE’S SISTERS

By Katelyn Grounds Life-changing ministries often start simple, with a handful of people and a common vision. That is true for Natalie”s Sisters. In 2000, three women sat down over lunch and decided it was time to answer God”s calling on their lives to minister to women caught in the sex industry. Soon they were taking home-cooked meals to women in Lexington”s strip clubs. That”s when Bruised Reed (as it was originally known) was born. The mission statement captures the group”s vision: “. . . to create life changing opportunities for women in the sex industry by extending hope, support,

November 28, 2016

Christian Standard

A Different View of the Oppressed

By Casey Tygrett   Oppressed. What does that word evoke for you? I typed oppression into Google, clicked Search, and it returned 36.5 million results. There is a lot being said about oppression. And Scripture says much about oppression, too. In fact, the word oppression appears nearly 4,500 times there. The first Bible story about oppression details the plight of the Israelites in Egypt and the beautifully momentous exodus that set them loose to chase the everlasting land and the everlasting covenant under the everlasting God. It”s a wonderful story, but it begins with oppression. To Be Helpless, to Be

November 25, 2016

Christian Standard

Serving to Be the Church

By James C. Jones These believers are working together to make a difference in their community.  Many houses where I live in Illinois are old. The house where I live, for example, was built in 1900. Since the population of many small towns in central Illinois has stayed roughly the same or decreased over the years, few homes are being built. Consequently, many people live in relatively old houses. Because so many houses are old and require continual maintenance, many people struggle to keep up with all that needs to be done. Many houses in our small town have fallen

November 21, 2016

Christian Standard

Studying the City: Hope International University

By Jennifer Johnson Several of the colleges and universities affiliated with our movement understand the need to reach their own cities while preparing students for an urban future. Here”s what one of them is doing. ________ HOPE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Fullerton, California The U.S. Census Bureau defines an urban area as “comprising one or more central places, and the adjacent densely-settled surrounding territory, that together have a minimum of 50,000 people.” So while cities like New York and Chicago certainly qualify as urban, so do urban sprawl areas like Anaheim, California. “Anaheim is home to 350,000 people,” says Kip Lines, professor

November 20, 2016

Christian Standard

Studying the City: Ozark Christian College

By Jennifer Johnson Several of the colleges and universities affiliated with our movement understand the need to reach their own cities while preparing students for an urban future. Here”s what one of them is doing. ________ OZARK CHRISTIAN COLLEGE Joplin, Missouri At first glance, Ozark seems an unlikely place to study urban ministry. “Most of our students come from small-to-medium-size towns,” says Mike Ackerman, professor of church planting and New Testament. “Some of them have never even been to a large city. But we need to care about cities because the world is moving to cities.” Previous study opportunities included

November 19, 2016

Christian Standard

Studying the City: Johnson University

By Jennifer Johnson Several of the colleges and universities affiliated with our movement understand the need to reach their own cities while preparing students for an urban future. Here”s what one of them is doing. ________ JOHNSON UNIVERSITY Knoxville, Tennessee, & Kissimmee, Florida Across the country, Johnson University has developed a variety of programs for its own students, for local high school and middle school students, and for the surrounding communities. In Knoxville, Kenny Woodhull leads the Urban Alliance, a Johnson initiative that partners with local organizations to offer educational experiences, mentoring, and leadership development. “A few years ago, a

November 18, 2016

Christian Standard

Six Tips for Dealing with Difficult Family Members

By Kevin DeValk You”ve made the pledge. You”ve taken the call to move to Africa, China, or somewhere else in the world to share the gospel, perhaps for years.  Upon hearing the news, parents and a small crowd of other relatives look at you skeptically. “You”re moving to WHERE?” Maybe they”re concerned about your safety and their grandkids” well-being. Maybe they”re struggling with your being so far away. Or they might be antagonistic toward the Bible in general. Whatever the cause, opposition from parents and siblings is faced by many new missionaries, even those with Christian parents. Here are a

November 17, 2016

Christian Standard

The Jesus House

By Jackina Stark After years of guerilla warfare, Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge (Red Cambodians) gained complete power over Cambodia in April 1975 to begin Year Zero and form a Communist peasant farming society. Foreigners were expelled, all national and international communications were cut off, health care was eliminated, and the inhabitants of Cambodian cities were evacuated on foot by gunpoint””2 million in Phnom Penh alone. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, monks, former soldiers and their wives and children””all the educated, religious, and wealthy””were executed. Those allowed to live were forced to labor in the fields 18 hours a day, typically

November 14, 2016

Christian Standard

Seeking a Justice That Transforms

By Preston Shipp From the prosecutor”s office to advocacy for the imprisoned: a journey toward a new kind of justice.  The United States has an immense population of marginalized people locked away in its prisons. It is the largest prison population in the history of the world, approximately 2.3 million people. As a result of America”s war on drugs, which has been waged over the past four decades and disproportionately against poor people of color, many of these people are serving long sentences for nonviolent crimes. The collateral damage, both emotional and financial, of such mass incarceration to children, spouses,

November 13, 2016

Christian Standard

The Church Needs the Hood

By Justin Horey It took a gang member for Tommy Nixon to understand grace. In 2002, Nixon cofounded Solidarity, a ministry designed to “help churches transform their cities,” but after a decade living and working in the low-income neighborhoods of Fullerton, California, he was frustrated. Nixon”s work with Solidarity had introduced him to a number of local gang members, and he had been ministering to one in particular for 10 years””but the young man”s life wasn”t changing. Despite Nixon”s efforts to help him, the gang member wound up in jail, and even was deported. Nixon recalls turning to God in

November 12, 2016

Christian Standard

When God Brought the Homeless: An Interview with Ed Taylor

By Brian Jennings Ed Taylor took the leap of faith to plant a church in Arlington Heights, an upscale suburb of Chicago, three years ago. My soul was blessed to hear how Quest Church opened her arms to the people God surprisingly sent their way. If I had a nickel for every friend who went from overseeing university standardized testing to planting a church, I guess I”d have one nickel. How did you get from there to here? I”d worked at the University of Iowa for about 10 years when I started leading worship at Iowa City Church of Christ.

November 11, 2016

Christian Standard

Missional Justice

By Kip Lines What is justice for followers of Jesus? What does it mean for the church to demonstrate God”s justice in the world? These are difficult questions I”ve discovered often lead to unexpected answers. In Kenya, together with Turkana church leaders, our missionary team sought to envision what it would look like in our communities if God really was in charge . . . if our following Jesus meant the kingdom of God was truly breaking into our human kingdoms. You might expect the largest injustice issues in a developing nation would be items like hunger and food security,

November 10, 2016

Christian Standard

Other Women, Other Fields

By Troy Jackson God hears the cries of those suffering from injustice. Do we? The Bible”s story of Ruth challenges us to look with new eyes at the plight of those still seeking justice today. When many think of justice, they reflect on the inequities that plague our communities and our world. Others consider the hundreds of millions of people who have little access to clean water. Some mourn for those caught in the horrors of human trafficking, and some are angered when they know people are mistreated and wounded because of race or gender or ethnicity or even geography.

November 7, 2016

Christian Standard

Pursuing Justice in an Unjust World

By Mark W. Hamilton What does a just community look like? Is the American church such a community?  Do we live out the call of the prophet Micah to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly before God?”* These questions confront anyone who studies the history of American Christianity. From that history we learn that Christians used the Bible to defend slavery and oppose it, to silence women and empower them, to cheer on Bull Connor”s corrupt police in Birmingham, Alabama, and to walk through hostile crowds in Little Rock, Arkansas, and Selma, Alabama, during the civil rights movement. Today,

November 6, 2016

Christian Standard

Seek First the Kingdom and Its Justice

By Robert L. Foster I work with a task force that connects churches with undocumented communities in partnerships that help our undocumented neighbors with the challenges they face here in the United States. Recently, at a church conference, the task force displayed an information table where churches and individuals signed up to receive information or to invite a speaker to talk to their church about creating such partnerships. Near the end of one day, a volunteer at our table overheard an attendee say, “We need to get away from all this talk about immigration and multiculturalism and get back Jesus.”

October 30, 2016

Christian Standard

God Spoke through the Sermons

What I learned from a year”s break from preaching By Dustin Fulton A few years ago, after a difficult season of ministry, my wife and I sensed a definite call to plant a church. Since we were weary, we were advised to take a sabbatical, as well as quit our jobs, sell our house, move out of town, and wait to see where God was leading us. Of the many aspects of the sabbatical, one that really excited me was getting to refresh my preaching skills by hearing from as many preachers as possible during my year”s break from the

October 29, 2016

Christian Standard

Unforced Rhythms of Grace

By Laura Dingman Bzzzt. Bzzzt. Bzzzt. Your alarm clock interrupts the rest you desperately need. It”s time to rise and shine. Well, rise anyway. You can”t shine until you get some coffee. You drag yourself through the morning routine, readying everyone else you”re responsible for as well as yourself. The day”s agenda floods your mind. Drop-offs. E-mails. Meetings. Conversations. To-do lists. A rhythm ties it all together. Even if we move through it unaware, there is a beat and a pace guiding us. It”s been this way since the beginning . . . In the beginning, God was. Through Him

October 27, 2016

Christian Standard

The Trouble with Trying to Do a Good Job

By Angela Sanders Nothing sets up a person for failure more effectively than an intense desire to do a good job when the definition of that “good job” is vague, subjective, and a matter of public interest. I ought to know. I am a minister”s wife. For my husband, my church, and myself, I”ve wanted few things more than to wear well the title “minister”s wife.” Now, before you start tsk-tsk-ing me and pointing out problems with that statement, let me save you the trouble and admit that some of my thinking early on””and intermittently over the years””has been skewed.

October 22, 2016

Christian Standard

Reading for the Good of Kids

By C. Christopher Smith Although I focus primarily on churches and neighborhoods in my book Reading for the Common Good, many of the reasons for reading in community are equally true for families. Indeed, most people”s first experiences with reading happen in the home. Reading can play a vital role for families as we strive to discern our identity, asking questions like “where are we?” and “what is our purpose as a family?” Similarly, reading can help our families navigate questions of vocation and economy: Which parent(s) will earn income? Will they work full- or part-time? What kind of work

October 21, 2016

Christian Standard

Churches and Reading, Conversation and Insight

From the new book Reading for the Common Good By C. Christopher Smith Reading is essential to the health and flourishing of our churches. However, reading and conversation must go hand in hand.  Reading that is most beneficial is reading that takes its cues from and is shared and discussed””in some way or another””with the local church body. Just as a body works together””seeing, feeling, listening””to understand its identity, so our churches are faced with the task of working together to understand our identity. Reading is a valuable tool in this process of discerning our identity, but only to the

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